Trump's message of support for jailed Ghislaine Maxwell as she awaits trial for grooming and abusing teenage girls

I said a week ago that this was all about going after Trump but now he has put his foot into his mouth.

See the coverage today from TruNews.

'Is Trump hinting at quid pro 

quo for silence?': Shock and 

conspiracy sweep Twitter 

after Trump's message of 

support for jailed Ghislaine 

Maxwell as she awaits trial 

for grooming and abusing 

teenage girls

• Trump told reporters he wishes Jeffrey Epstein's accused madam 'well' in his Tuesday press conference 
• The president said he 'hadn't been following [the case] too much' but 'I just wish her well, frankly' 
• He admitted meeting her 'numerous times' over the years when she, Epstein and Trump lived in Palm Beach
• Trump's Mar-a-Lago club was down the road from Epstein's estate where he abused his victims
• Maxwell, 58, is being held in a Brooklyn jail and pleaded not guilty last week to trafficking minors for Epstein 
• She was denied bail last Tuesday and will stay locked up until her sex trafficking trial in summer 2021

Daily Mail,

22 July, 2020

Twitter has erupted into a hive of conspiracy theories after political commentators blasted President Donald Trump for supporting suspected sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell. 

Trump admitted meeting Maxwell, who is currently in jail having been denied bail at a high-profile hearing last week, 'numerous times' over the years and although he 'hadn't been following it too much' he 'wishes her well'. 

'I just wish her well frankly,' he said Tuesday night, at the end of a White House press briefing on the dramatic rise in the number of coronavirus cases. 

It comes after Maxwell, 58, cried as she was denied bail at last Tuesday's hearing where she learned that she will remain locked up until her trial next summer, after she pleaded not guilty to charges of luring underage girls so her ex-boyfriend Jeffrey Epstein could sexually abuse them. 

Following the press conference political commentators took to Twitter to try to make sense of what had motivated Trump to wish the suspected 'madam' well. 

YouTuber Luke Rudkowski tweeted: 'Why would you wish a child trafficker well? I mean what am I missing here.' 

Brian Tyler Cohen tweeted: 'I know we're all freaking out about Trump complimenting sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell but consider for a second *why* Trump might have a vested interest in publicly saying nice things about her. ...There you go.'

One of Mr Cohen's followers replied: 'Is Trump hinting at quid pro quo pardon for silence (is Ghislane being charged federally or at the state level?), or is he "subtlety" threatening she'll end up like Epstein, or just trying to appear supportive so if she ends up mysteriously dead he has a tiny bit of deniability?'

Another Twitter user added: 'Devastating 'tell' from Trump to wish Maxwell well. Why wish well to someone who stands accused in an American court of facilitating the rape of children. 

'He couldn't possibly know she is innocent unless he spent every second with her. He could only know if she is guilty.' 

Another added: 'Yesterday trump press conference was only held to serve one purpose it was trump's signal to Ghislaine Maxwell to not talk and he will protect her because he know she can bury him 

'Others Tweeted to express their shock and surprise over Trump's support of Maxwell.'

Bakari Sellers, 35, tweeted 'the president can wish Ghislaine Maxwell well but can't say Black Lives Matter. Wild.' 

Lawyer Joyce Alene tweeted: 'Trump says he wishes Ghislaine Maxwell, charged with sex trafficking minor girls, well.'

In a second tweet, Mr Cohen, added: '"I wish her well," Trump says of Ghislaine Maxwell, who helped Jeffrey Epstein traffic and rape dozens of underage girls over the course of years.'

Another, Tony Schwartz, tweeted: 'Highlight of news conference for me: Trump wishes Ghislane Maxwell well, the pedophile compatriot of Jeffrey Epstein. In one sentence, tells you everything you need to know about Trump.' 

Trump's connections to Epstein and Maxwell have long come under scrutiny as they mixed in the same wealthy circles for decades, with Trump once describing the convicted pedophile as a 'terrific guy'. 

'I've met her numerous times over the years especially since I lived in Palm Beach and I guess they lived in Palm Beach,' he said of Maxwell during the briefing last night.

Trump then reinforced his well-wishes for Maxwell and said he doesn't know about the 'situation' with Prince Andrew.

'But I wish her well whatever it is,' he said. 'I don't know the situation with Prince Andrew. I don't know, I'm just not aware of it.' 

One of Epstein's victims Virginia Roberts Giuffre claims she was coerced into having sex with the Prince Andrew as a 17-year-old - claims the prince strongly denies.

Social media users voiced their shock and outrage that the president would wish a suspected child sex trafficker 'well'. 

'WTAF?!? What does that mean? Wish her well?!? In what way? Less prison time? Or get off scot free and welcome her to one of your golf clubs?' tweeted tennis star Martina Navratilova. 

Political commentator Mr Schwartz went on to compare Trump's comments to his previous support of Roger Stone. 

The political operative's 40-month prison sentence for lying to operatives and witness tampering in the Robert Mueller-led probe into Russia meddling on the 2016 election was commuted by Trump on July 10.

'Ghislane Maxwell is Trump's newest Roger Stone. She has the goods on Trump's relationship with pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. Is there any doubt she has a hideous story to tell?' Schwartz tweeted. 

Amansa Carpenter, author and former senior staffer to Senators Jim DeMint and Ted Cruz, slammed the president's comments saying: 'For those following: The correct answer to the question about whether Maxwell will turn in powerful men should have been "I hope she cooperates fully so all those who have abused women and children are brought to justice." Not "I wish her well."'

Trump knew Epstein and Maxwell for decades, running in the same elite social circles in Florida and New York in the 1980s and 1990s before the pedophile's fall from grace. 

In 1992, the future president organized a 'calendar girls' party with 28 women, with Epstein and himself the only men, according to Vanity Fair. 

The two men were also seen on recently surfaced video footage partying together that year at Mar-a-Lago with cheerleaders from the Buffalo Bills.

In the footage, Trump is heard saying: 'Look at her… she's hot.'

In 1997, Trump also flew from Palm Beach to Newark, New Jersey, on Epstein's plane with Maxwell also aboard. 

Now famous photos taken at Mar-a-Lago show the president posing with future First Lady Melania Trump, Epstein and Maxwell later in February 2000. 

Trump heaped praise on Epstein back then calling him a 'terrific guy' who likes women 'on the younger side'.

'He's a lot of fun to be with,' Trump said in an interview with Vanity Fair in 2002. 

'It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.' 

Prosecutors say Maxwell groomed three girls between 1994 and 1997 for Epstein. 

They are not named in the indictment, but she allegedly targeted them in London, Florida, New York and New Mexico.

Maxwell, it is alleged, would befriend the girls by asking them about their life and their schooling. She would put them at ease by taking them to the movies and taking them shopping, winning their trust to later deliver them to Epstein, it's alleged.

To 'normalize' the abuse that would come later, prosecutors say she undressed in front of the girls herself and asked them sexual questions. 

She then not only facilitated Epstein abusing them, prosecutors say, but took part in some of it herself. 

The alleged sex abuse includes 'sexualized group massages'. 

The indictment also says Maxwell made the girl feel 'indebted' to Epstein by encouraging them to take money from him and let him pay for their education and travel. 

Trump and Epstein reportedly fell out around 2004, in a dispute over a property purchase. 

Four years later in 2018, Epstein pleaded guilty to one count of solicitation of prostitution and one count of solicitation of prostitution with a minor under the age of 18 and was sentenced to 18 months in jail.

The president has since sought to distance himself from Epstein and downplay his relationship with the pedophile. 

One month before Epstein died in a New York jail cell in August last year, Trump said he was 'not a fan'.

'I had a falling out with him. I haven't spoken to him in 15 years,' Trump said at a White House press conference.

'I was not a fan of his, that I can tell you.' 

Some of Epstein's victims have mentioned Trump and Mar-a-Lago in their accounts of events surrounding the abuse. 

The president is mentioned in a civil suit filed by an unnamed woman who is suing Epstein's estate. 

The alleged Epstein victim claims her abuser took her to Mar-a-Lago when she was just 14 and showed her to Trump.

She claims Epstein elbowed Trump 'playfully' and said: 'This is a good one, right?' 

There is no suggestion Trump knew she was underage or was involved in any abuse. 

Roberts Guiffre claims Epstein used Mar-a-Lago to prey on and recruit young girls into his sex-trafficking operation.

She claims she first met the pedophile as a 15-year-old working as a locker room attendant at Mar-a-Lago in 1999.

Newly resurfaced footage from 2015 also shows Trump telling reporters to ask Prince Andrew about Jeffrey Epstein's 'pedophile island'.

In in an interview with Bloomberg, Trump said: 'That island was really a cesspool, there's no question about it. 

'Just ask Prince Andrew, he'll tell you about it. The island was an absolute cesspool.' 

The connections between the pedophile and the president ramped up last month when Attorney General Bill Barr said Trump had ordered him to fire Geoffrey S. Berman, United States attorney for the Southern District of New York.

Berman's office charged Epstein with child sex trafficking last year. 

Epstein was found hanging in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan last August. 

His death was ruled a suicide but his attorneys and some family members claim he was murdered to stop him from sharing what he knows about other high profile, powerful people. 

Maxwell was denied bail last Tuesday and learned she must stay locked up until her sex trafficking trial in summer 2021. 

She is now being held in a Brooklyn jail and pleaded not guilty last week to trafficking minors for Epstein. 

Maxwell had been lying low since Epstein's death last year but was arrested earlier in the month, when authorities swooped on her luxury home in New Hampshire where prosecutors say she was hiding out.

She was romantically involved with the pedophile from around 1992, but then became his 'right-hand woman', managing his property empire and, it is alleged, his trafficking of minors. 

Maxwell is currently in custody in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn where she has been given paper clothes to prevent her committing suicide. 

President Donald Trump's shady history of support for alleged crooks and convicted felons